Having config files just in the game to adjust basic difficulty / accessibility / fun would simplify a lot of it and are something most devs overlook. That's actually all some of the mods do, and it's great (custom weapon stats / custom armor stats, etc.)

It kind of feels like the designers don't understand why a big chunk of players liked the game. It's been... pretty static for 7 months now, and tons of people still loved it and were joining up new to enjoy it. The first "big" change they make turns off a massive chunk of the player population from it. There is unfortunately a pretty big history of EA games misunderstanding what their players enjoy and wanted and ending up shooting themselves in the foot.

The only people really defending the new food system and stamina drains seem to be the "git gud" types which are always a vocal group, so it's unclear exactly how many it appeals to, but the ratio of negative:positive reviews spiked massively over the past two days even with WAY more positive reviews pouring in than usual (positive-review bombing maybe to try and counteract negatively, or just people excited for a first real patch).

While I'm a bit put off by the lack of actual content after such a huge stretch (and the hype the team built up, in the interview they even offhand mentioned Mistlands content), I'm disappointed in the actual balance changes. The system could have been untouched and been fine, maybe not perfect but fine. It's now significantly worse, more tedious, less open for strategies and variety, etc. It's basically now "do it this way or fail even more than you would doing it the correct way". Because now there's a "correct" way which there wasn't before. In this kind of game, you don't want to force people to play a certain way, and you certainly don't want to add a bunch of requirements to even doing that when you do (extra ingredients, materials, cooking steps, etc.)